“Inform the prince that I have burnt the bridge,” said the colonel, in a cheerful and triumphant tone.

“And if he inquires with what losses?”

“Not worth mentioning,” boomed the colonel; “two hussars wounded and one stark dead on the spot,” he said, with undisguised cheerfulness. The German was unable to repress a smile of satisfaction as he sonorously enunciated the idiomatic Russian colloquialism of the last phrase.